Thursday, November 29, 2018

come on in...

On a much lighter note than yesterday's post, I thought I'd invite you in to take a peek at what our Christmas decor looks like this year.  Every year, I do things different.  I do not buy anything, usually, though this year I did add a few new things, two of which were gifts, and one little tree that I bought at the cutest little shop on our town square called Southern Farmhouse.  Also, consider this your warning that this is going to be a long and picture-laden post.  Christmas is my jam, and I go all out, because I am a stay at home wife and mom, and I have all the time in the world. 


The first stop is our dining room.  Last year for our church's Tablescapes, my mom made this arrangement for my table.  And then after it was all done, she told me I could bring it home and keep it!  I also bought this tablecloth for that same event last year, and I've used it all year long.  It also is quite helpful in keeping our German shepherd off of our dining room table.  Yes, that was a whole thing one time. 


I kept this hutch in the dining room pretty simple.  That wooden trough was a gift from my sister-in-love last year, and the trees are some my boys "bought" for me when they were little.  The snowglobe was my mom's.  Also, I keep all our extra dishes in this hutch, including the Christmas ones that are now residing in my cabinets.


Mom inspired me to even decorate the top of my refrigerator, because why not?!  Almost everything in this post is old, by the way, I'll tell you if something is new that I love.


Someone on Instagram inspired me to put garland in this area.  That garland is artificial, but doesn't it look real!?  Thanks, Mom!  She gave it to me a couple of years ago, when I lost all of mine.  (I did later find it.)



I still love this tiered stand my mom-in-love gave me for my birthday last year.  It's my favorite thing in my house at this moment, because of how cute it looks.  This top picture is the front, and the bottom one is the back.  This week, I went back and added more ornaments that she gave me. 


Cute little frame one of my favorite teenage girls gave me several years ago, and it perfectly hides the peppermint chapstick I keep hidden there, because the same German shepherd I mentioned LOVES to eat my peppermint flavored chapstick.  I'm not even kidding.  She only eats the peppermint flavored kind, never the tubes of regular I have everywhere. 


This cabinet was my dad's.  I love it, missing knob and all.  This snowman was one my mom had when I was a little girl.  All of my quiet time resources are inside and on top of this cabinet.  I always have quiet time at the kitchen table, until the Christmas decorations go up, then I do it everyday by the light of the tree. 


This is my kitchen table.  I love this little snowman dish!  Every single year my boys put a nose ring on him, and I laugh when I see it, every time.  These are the rest of  the ornaments I got from my mom-in-love Monday night.  That's just a pie plate that they're in.


These little guys are on the bathroom counter in the downstairs bathroom.  They were a gift from Drew's first kindergarten teacher (he had two). 

I also have peppermint scented soap on the other side of the sink, which I bought on Saturday from HomeGoods.  I like to buy all our hand soaps, lotions, and candles from there.  They're so inexpensive!  Here's a candle I bought last weekend, that smells up the entire house. 


I also burned this thing ALL DAY LONG, and it is going to last so long, because it barely made a dent.


I put a few little things on the piano, including the Clauses that my dad gave me several years ago.  I love them, because they were around when I was a young girl.  I am such a sucker for things like that, and that snowman I showed on the red cabinet.



The Christmas tree in the daylight, and the tree in the wee hours of the morning, when it's just the animals and myself up and moving around.  I love that time of day!  Early morning has always felt so reverent to me, perhaps because it's when I do my best talking to God.  I can't tell you how many times I've been up at  four, and then prayed myself back to sleep in the recliner.  I love having this time with Him, with nothing around to distract me.  He always puts someone on my mind during this time of day, too, which I think is one reason why He has me get up so early. 

Also, how cute is that box around my tree?  Todd and Jonah made it for me last Friday.  I'd been wanting a tree collar, to deter the cat from eating the tree, but Todd found one similar to this and he and Jonah got the pallet for free, then whipped it up in no time.  I love it so much!  I stuffed burlap inside of it that I had laying around.  And Twinkles has NOT been eating the tree.  Bonus.


Little table in between the windows in the living room.  The little potted tree is one I bought from that cute store I mentioned, Southern Farmhouse, and the tall ones came from a shop my mom worked in years and years ago. 


Please excuse Chip's wagging and blur.  This is the landing at the top of the stairs.  I got this cute flocked tree at Marshall's a few weeks ago, and have been anxiously awaiting putting it on top of that cute little antique barley twist plant stand.  I love the way it looks. 


I love our bedroom.  I added twinkle lights and garland around the windows this year, to make it a little more Christmasy.  


And these guys reside on top of our bathroom counter.  I love them and think they're adorable, but when Todd walked in the night we put all this up after riding with the sheriff's department and saw them, he almost throat punched them.  They scared him.  I'm laughing as I write that.


My stepdad made me this tree.  I love it!  



This year on the outside, we put the new tree up, and then Jonah put lights in the crepe myrtles that flank the house.  I love the way it all turned out, and while it looks like a ton, it really isn't, and is less than I do every other year.  Believe it or not, from start to finish, it took about three hours to do everything inside the house.  The outside of the house was done the Friday after Thanksgiving, and I have moved a couple of things around, or added to them.  Like I said, I LOVE Christmas.  It really is the most wonderful time of year, at least, in my humble opinion.  

I love it all, but I don't want anything to distract from the real reason why we celebrate, and that is Jesus.  He is my hope, my joy, my Savior and King.  He is the Light of the world, in Him there is no darkness (John 8:12).  I pray that I represent Him well everywhere I go, as an image bearer of Him, and that when people walk into our home, that they feel His presence.  We've had that happen before, a cable guy say that our house "felt" different than other houses he had been inside.  My other prayer is that the Lord uses us in our home to minister to people in need.  God has given a gift to my husband, in being able to reach people where they are.  We were at a shoe store not long ago, and my husband ended up giving the gentleman there his phone number (and got his in return) so that we could have him over for dinner one night.  

So that is my prayer.  I pray that as I go busily about during this season, that I lavish love and kindness everywhere I go, even when I'm in an annoyingly long line at the grocery, or as I fight Christmas traffic.  The Lord has lovingly lavished those things on me, so it's a responsibility I have to pass that on in His name.  I hope to take those opportunities to pray for those around me, especially all the ones I know and love who are lost and don't know Jesus.  

My current favorite Christmas song right now is one by Francesca Battistelli.  It's called Heaven Everywhere, and I'm going to write out a few of the lines. 

.................................
Somehow, there's a little more of love
And maybe there's a little less of us
Or maybe we're just slightly more aware
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere

It's the smile on a man who has finally found hope
It's the tears of a mother whose child has come home
It's the joy that we feel and the love that we share
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere

It's funny how it takes a holiday
To show us how the world could truly change
If we all took the time to really care
There'd be a little more of heaven everywhere

It's the grace that we show to a world that needs hope
It's giving our lives knowing they're not our own
It's the joy that we feel and the love that we share
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere
...................

Isn't that beautiful?  I will leave on that note.  Thanks for reading, my friends.  Love to all.  

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